Sailing into the Navy

Yesterday, Gavin did a worksheet I made that had four military words. He circled the vowels and wrote the beginning sound on the line. He did a good job. He even caught the last word 'ship' because when I read the word to him I explained that when 's' and 'h' are together they say 'shh'. He circled the 'i' and then I asked him what the beginning sound was he said 'shh' and I asked what makes that sound and he said 's, h'. I was very proud of him!


Then he colored an aircraft carrier and made an army friend, who he named Gavin. He's been naming everything Gavin lately.

We hung this on the frame of the window that's right next to his table so he can see it while he's working!
Later in the day Gavin got out the lacing beads Grandma Sue got him for Christmas. First he worked on stringing them together, then he decided just to stack them into a tower.

Then something really exciting happened! The mailman dropped off a package sent by Steven's Uncle Steve who was in the Navy. Steven had called him and told him that Gavin was learning about the military and he was nice enough to send us all kinds of great stuff to look at! Thank you Uncle Steve!!!

Gavin was thrilled and Steven showed him the pictures and told him what all the patches symbolized. This was really good because I wasn't exactly sure how to explain patches and rank so I think this really helped him understand what they mean and how you earn them. Gavin was very impressed by the medal (although we have talked about the medal of honor and the purple heart and now he's convinced Uncle Steve's plane was shot down). But, Gavin wanted to keep the medal. We told him that you have to earn medals, you can't just take someone else's medal!

Then they looked at a great book that talks about the history of the Navy. They looked at the pictures and read from it until bedtime and then Gavin said he wanted to read more in the morning. He didn't forget because as soon as he got up this morning he said he wanted to read more of the Navy book! We've read a little more a couple times today - it's a really long book!

We also got a DVD about the history of flight. We haven't had a chance to watch it yet but hopefully Monday or Tuesday we will. And, something else that was extremely exciting, Uncle Steve sent Gavin a Navy sweatshirt. Gavin was so excited and asked if he could wear it to preschool to show all his friends. Normally he doesn't get to wear sweatshirts to school but I told him we'd make an exception for this one. He insisted on wearing the sweatshirt this morning when I got him dressed and he never tells me what he wants to wear so I think it's a hit!

So another big 'thank you' to Uncle Steve because you made Gavin one happy little boy!